---
title: The old woman kept the girls hard at work, from morning till night,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old woman kept the girls hard at work, from morning till night, spinning gold flax into yarn, and when one distaff was empty another was given them, so they had no rest. Who acts: old woman, one distaff, woman. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old woman kept the girls hard at work, from morning till night, spinning gold flax into yarn, and when one distaff was empty another was given them, so they had no rest.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old woman, one distaff, woman · **What happens:** keep, spin, be, give, have · **To what, where:** girls, work, gold flax, yarn, another, rest

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old woman, one distaff, woman), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg503:26:4
# text = The old woman kept the girls hard at work, from morning till night, spinning gold flax into yarn, and when one distaff was empty another was given them, so they had no rest.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	till	till	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
17	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	yarn	yarn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
24	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	distaff	distaff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
28	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	advcl	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	so	so	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
34	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
36	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	37	det	_	_
37	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | past | the old woman | the girls |  | work | morning; night | hard *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent girl=Theme at work=Location |
| 2 | **spin** | gerund | the old woman *not said here* | gold flax |  | yarn |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent flax=Theme into yarn=Trajectory |
| 3 | **is** | past | one distaff |  |  |  |  | empty *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **give** | past · passive |  | another |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient they=Theme |
| 5 | **have** | past | woman | no rest |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rest=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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